Wild Flowers
by Shadowcatxx
Summary: Yesterday the four class-clowns had received detention for playing jokes, eating, and falling asleep in class - basically just disturbing the peace. They weren't exactly the knights-in-shining-armour she was looking for, but there was definitely something special about each of them.


**DISCLAIMER****: _Naruto_ - Masashi Kishimoto**

**WILD FLOWERS**

I _want to live like a wild flower_, Ino thought nostalgically.

She was lying on her back on the riverbank, beneath the open cerulean sky; shape-shifting clouds rolled lazily overhead, but the young soon-to-be _kunoichi_ was more interested in the vibrant wild flowers that danced in the warm breeze around her. Plucking a sunshine daisy, she twirled the petals as eleven-year-old girls are wont to do when thinking about knights-in-shining-armour.

It was a shame that none of the boys at the academy understood anything about chivalry; boys her own age were so _immature_. Yesterday the four class-clowns had received detention for playing jokes, eating, and falling asleep in class - basically just disturbing the peace. Iruka-_sensei_ had had to punish them by keeping them after class; Ino had seen them standing against the classroom wall wearing green leaves on their foreheads. She'd rolled her eyes and carried on about her business, thinking: _boys_.

Her mother had simply smiled, and shared with her pre-adolescent daughter a secret as old as the earth itself: _some boys never grow up_. It wasn't exactly inspiring.

The summer breeze shifted and the long, soft grass tickled her cheek. There was one boy who didn't seem to follow the delinquent pattern, Ino mused; a cute black-haired boy from the recently exterminated Uchiha clan. His sad, bottomless black-diamond eyes, so obviously starved of love, silently begged for a hug that Ino was quite willing to give. Compared to the other careless troublemakers that she studied with, there was really no contest. For obvious reasons Sasuke was the most popular boy at the academy, which meant that she'd have to compete for his attention, but when had Ino Yamanaka ever shied away from a challenge?

Contentedly, Ino's bejeweled-blue eyes gazed at the sky longingly, looking at the bloated faces up in the clouds. Some people - not necessarily Ino - believed that if a young girl closed her eyes on a warm summer's day, and listened carefully to the music of the wind, _kami_ would whisper the name of the man she would marry. Unfortunately, the only name that Ino heard was her own: "Ino!"

"Sakura," she said, opening her eyes. Her friend's lily-pink hair framed her face like a lion's mane as she leaned over Ino's horizontal figure. Her green eyes twinkled, mirroring the smile on her lips.

"Ino, what're you doing?"

"Daydreaming," Ino replied. Gesturing, she invited Sakura to join her.

Eagerly, the cheerful girl complied. "The wild flowers are really beautiful, aren't they?" she said. Absently, Ino nodded. "I think the cosmos flowers are the prettiest," Sakura continued, fingering a violet blossom with a rich, gold centre. "Ino?"

"Mmm? I'm sorry, did you say something Sakura?"

Sakura giggled. "Ino, what're you _really_ thinking about?"

Hesitantly Ino glanced at her pink-haired friend, flashing her a brilliantly mischievous grin. Sakura leaned forward expectantly, ready to protect any secret the blonde was willing to share with her. "I was thinking," she said juicily, "about the Konoha boys, particularly the ones from the academy."

Sakura's face flushed, and again she giggled.

"And I was thinking," Ino continued, enjoying Sakura's undivided attention. "About what it would be like to marry one of them."

"_Marry_?" Sakura gasped excitedly. "Which one?"

Ino shrugged. "I don't know," she said honestly. "Who would you want to marry?"

Sakura's brow creased in concentration. She thought for a moment, and then sighed in exasperation. "Well," she said, raising her finger pointedly. "I _wouldn't_ want to marry Naruto; he's so annoying, and he doesn't take anything seriously."

"Agreed," Ino nodded, and added: "I wouldn't want to marry Kiba, he's _so_ arrogant."

"Or Choji," Sakura continued, enjoying the game. "He's nice enough I guess, but he's so self-conscious, and he _never _stops eating. Through all of our exams, all I ever heard was _munch, munch, munch_," she mimicked, making Ino snort in amusement.

"I wouldn't want to marry Shikamaru," she said, faking a terrified face. "Could you imagine being with someone _that_ lazy, I mean he falls asleep in class!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I know. The only boy worth looking at is-"

"Sasuke," they said in union. An awkward pause extended until Ino broke the tension with a short, quick laugh. "Looks like we have the same taste in men Sakura, not that there's any real contest," she said, winking. "Sasuke sure is cute, but you know..." She paused.

"What?" Sakura prompted curiously.

Ino licked her lips, twirling the daisy between her fingers. "Never mind." She didn't know how to explain herself to Sakura without shattering her entire reputation. She didn't know how to tell her friend that beneath his charismatic personality, Naruto seemed lonely; Kiba was really funny; Choji was super sweet; and Shikamaru, might have been lazy, but he was someone she knew she could trust. They weren't exactly solemn and serious, not mysteriously alluring like Sasuke was, and none of them had been called a _child prodigy_, but there was something about each of them that made them special. And again, Ino found herself secretly wondering which one of them she would someday marry.

It was a melodramatic fantasy, a silly symphony of haphazard thoughts fueled by an eleven-year-old girl's overactive imagination. But she indulged - just for a moment.

"You know," said Sakura thoughtfully. "Finding a boyfriend is kind of like making flower arrangements, remember the lesson we had last spring?"

Ino nodded, though she wasn't sure she understood. "How so?"

Sakura shrugged self-consciously. "Well, flower arranging is about finding individuals that complement each other when put together, right? I think couples are the same; they need to complement each other's colours, support each other."

"You know what, that's a good analogy," Ino replied.

Hours after Sakura had left, running home for six o'clock supper, Ino remained lying with her arms folded contentedly behind her head in the grass, daydreaming. Smiling, despite her precarious predicament. In retrospect, it wouldn't matter which boy she fantasized about now; she was eleven-years-old, a soon-to-be _kunoichi_, and a member of the respected Yamanaka clan. She was Ino Yamanaka, daughter of the _chief of intelligence_, and top of her academy class; she had more than enough to look forward to without worrying over the silly Konoha boys.

Sidetracked, she wondered about whom her teammates would be once she became a _shinobi_. Her father's teammates were Shikamaru and Choji's fathers; they called themselves the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. If Iruka-_sensei_ and the other _shinobi_ decided to continue this tradition, she might very well end up with the lazy genius and the self-conscious sweetheart as her teammates; she wondered if they would complement her the way Shikaku and Choza complemented her father.

"If I'm a cosmos flower," she flattered herself, "bold and beautiful, the centre-piece. Choji would be a... snapdragon, vibrant and supportive. And Shikamaru," she thought, eyeing the velvety daisy in her hand. The kind of flower that every eleven-year-old girl mutilated while dreaming about her knight-in-shining-armour. Holding the three flowers together, Ino smiled, then tossed the petals into the wind.

_I want to live like a wild flower_. There were worse daydreams a girl could have.


End file.
